George Hill looking to be Collin Sexton's very own Tony Parker

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Collin Sexton grabbed his shorts, crouched down in a defensive stance and hounded George Hill all the way up the floor.

In that moment, one that has become customary during training camp practices, Sexton reminded Hill of someone from his past.

Himself.

"We're really competing and I'm trying to make it hard for him and he's making it hard for me and we're learning off one another and trying to make each other better," Hill told cleveland.com. "I have high expectations for him and I know he has high expectations for himself. At the same time I'm going to be one of his biggest fans for him to improve and do great things."

A plucky point guard who was eager to stand out in his first training camp used to be Hill. A first-round pick of the San Antonio Spurs in 2008 and once seen as Tony Parker's apprentice, Hill can still recall those early practice sessions.

He remembers picking up Parker 94 feet away from the basket, challenging himself daily against a future Hall-of-Famer.

Hill recognizes how much those practices meant for his own development, the pointers he was able to pick up playing against Parker. He even remembers a specific message that he has now passed down.

"The biggest thing he told me was, 'You're going to make mistakes. It's OK. Learn from them. Keep moving. Keep learning. And do it being aggressive,'" Hill told cleveland.com. "With Tony it was a matter of going through that fire, being in that fire and learning. Then taking it from there."

All those years watching Parker helped Hill learn how to shoot the floater the correct way, using one foot, then the other, jumping off the wrong foot and even mixing in the two-footed floater. He was able to see the game through Parker's eyes and learned how to handle adversity the proper way. He saw Parker's work ethic and wanted to match.

"Still to this day I give all the thanks to San Antonio. I felt like if I didn't get drafted there first I probably wouldn't have been in the league," Hill said. "I'm not the fastest, not the most athletic, but I learned how to play the right way. I learned how to be a professional. I learned how to win and how to be a team-first guy.

"Going to an organization where winning means something, where you're held accountable and you have goals and things like that I think that molds you early as a player and gives you that platform and foundation to be a professional."

Hill is 32 now, entering his 11th NBA season. He was molded in San Antonio, but broke out in Indiana, where he became part of the Pacers' four-time playoff core.

In all, he's played in 666 NBA games, starting 434, and has made 102 playoff appearances. He's studied different systems and been in an array of environments. Not bad for a guy who once thought he'd be lucky to have a four- or five-year career.

Hill is the Cavaliers' starting point guard -- a decision head coach Tyronn Lue officially announced Thursday afternoon. But Hill has another role, one that probably carries even more importance to Cleveland's long-term organizational health: mentoring Sexton, the eighth pick in the June draft and franchise cornerstone.

"I tell him, 'There's no friends on the court. You're going to compete and you're trying to win and cut someone's neck off,'" Hill said of his message to Sexton. "I think he already has that mindset. That's one thing when I came to San Antonio that's how I played. I picked you up full, I was going to get in your face and I wasn't going to back down. I think he has that same mindset that people slept on him and he's here to prove everybody wrong, that he belongs."

During the summer of 2017, when teams were tossing money around, the Kings gave Hill a massive three-year, $57 million deal.

The contract was signed about one week after Sacramento had just used the fifth pick of the 2017 NBA Draft on promising point guard De'Aaron Fox. That was part of the logic behind the signing, as Hill was brought to Sacramento to help guide Fox through his rookie season and teach him what he didn't know.

Now Hill's back in that same role. Only with a different pupil.

There's 13 years between Hill and Sexton. While basketball brought them together, they spend down time talking about any number of things.

"I know I can go to him about pretty much anything and I know he's going to have my back and have the best interest for me," Sexton told cleveland.com. "It's good to have that veteran, older guy to lean on, especially so young so I can lean on him and he helps me out. That's pretty cool."

The two listen to the same music and watch the same shows. Sexton chuckled when asked if a topic has come up yet that shows the age gap. It hasn't happened yet. But Sexton knows it's coming.

Hill and Sexton opened training camp fighting for the same spot. Most days, they've been on opposite sides, battling each other -- except when Lue wants to get a peek at the Sexton-Hill backcourt like he did during the third preseason game against Indiana. But neither guy will let their desire to start interfere with a growing bond that began in September.

"It's basketball. At the end of the day everyone wants to win and that's really the reason why we play is to win," Sexton said. "If we can help each other in any way then that's what we're going to do."

If anything, those aggressive training sessions have brought out the best in both. Hill, coming off one of his worst NBA seasons, needed a push. Who better to provide it than a spunky teenager who's talented enough to eventually take his spot?

Sexton, whose game needs plenty of polish and seasoning, is being tested every day by a tough, defensive-minded point guard who has the athleticism that Sexton isn't yet used to and the smarts Sexton hasn't encountered.

"There's probably not going to be a lot tougher matchups on a day-to-day basis, on a game-to-game basis than G-Hill," Lue said. "That's good for him."

Tristan Thompson, another one of Cleveland's leaders, has seen this point guard competition work well before. For years, he watched Matthew Dellavedova pester Kyrie Irving, pressuring him all way up the court, grabbing his jersey and physically preparing him for the step up in intensity.

"Collin has the Delly approach," Thompson told cleveland.com. "I think they are both pushing each other because they're both picking each other up full court and both really good defenders at the point guard position. Think they are both helping each other prepare for the season. I think they complement each other a lot in terms of getting each other better."

When asked to describe Sexton, Hill used the term "humble." He raves about a willingness to learn and the questions he asks. He sees Sexton's desire to get better, the work he puts in before and after practice, and the times he screams at himself for making a mistake. He watches him dive for loose balls and hears some of the trash talk.

Most importantly, he notices Sexton blossoming into a leader - just a few weeks after the youngster, by his own admission, was a bit jittery.

"Has the fire in his eyes," Hill said. "I think he's a mature 19. He's not one of those that's joking around all the time, that doesn't take the game serious or just happy to be here. He's working, he's strong-minded and he's trying to be here, not just to be in a position to play, but to be something great."

There are plenty of these stories around the NBA. Kevin Love credits Al Jefferson for "putting me in the basket quite a bit" and showing Love what he needed to work on. Practicing against Jefferson, who Love refers to as a "big brother," made Cleveland's All-Star stay in the gym longer. Jefferson even gave Love drills to improve his post-up game.